gay marriage

Gay and lesbian activists cheered a ruling by a San Francisco judge that has overturned a statewide ban on gay marriage, but their conservative opponents say the rekindled controversy will ignite efforts to pass amendments to state and federal constitutions.

The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, one of the nation’s oldest schools for training mainline Protestant clergy, has retired its president and reprimanded him for officiating at his gay daughter’s wedding.

Canadian religious groups that oppose gay marriage are trying to make the best of a Supreme Court ruling that paves the way for Canada to become the third nation besides Belgium and the Netherlands to allow nationwide recognition of gay nuptials.

Riding high on President Bush’s reelection and on decisive victories to ban gay marriage in 11 states, activists in the traditional-marriage movement say they now have a mandate to claim their ultimate prize: an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The National Council of Churches has applauded an agreement unionizing foreign farmworkers who pick cucumbers sold by the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, which the NCC had boycotted in protest of previous worker treatment.

Shortly before the start of his party’s national convention, Vice President Dick Cheney surprised many of his and President Bush’s most conservative supporters by publicly differing with the president on the issue of same-sex marriage.

The U.S. government has revoked the work visa of a Muslim scholar who planned to teach at the University of Notre Dame during the fall semester. The visa of Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, was pulled at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, according to news reports.

California’s Supreme Court has voided the marriages of nearly 4,000 gay couples who wed in San Francisco last spring, ruling that Mayor Gavin Newsom did not have the authority to flout state marriage laws.

The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would prohibit federal courts from ruling on the merits of a 1996 law that allowed states not to recognize gay marriages performed by other states. On July 22 the House adopted, 233-194, the Marriage Protection Act, which would tie the hands of all federal courts—including the U.S.